CTA to keep employing imperiled rail car cleaners

By Dan Hinkel, Tribune reporter

After weeks of public disagreement between Chicago Transit Authority officials and union leaders over a program that has given felons jobs cleaning rail cars, a transit agency spokesman said Wednesday night that workers from the program would be transferred into jobs cleaning buses.

CTA spokesman Brian Steele said he couldn't give details, citing an announcement planned for Thursday morning, but he confirmed that workers from the rail car servicer apprenticeship program would be moved into a CTA bus-cleaning program. Steele said he could not say how many workers would be transferred.

Steele's confirmation followed a news release announcing the plan from Robert Kelly, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which represents rail workers.

The union and the agency accused one another of putting the rail car program in peril. Agency officials alleged union intransigence, while Kelly said he wanted the program to continue but with the workers — who were making $9.50 an hour without health care coverage — getting better pay and benefits.